The graceful Miss India impressed the celebrity judging panel when she said she would like to have been born Hollywood film star Audrey Hepburn whom she admired for her "inner beauty, compassion and great aura".

She told the judges that her favourite dish was Thai food and that she would love to go to Paris.

She was crowned by her predecessor, Linor Abargil, 20, from Israel.

Despite emerging as a late favourite to win the crown, Miss UK Nicola Willoughby, 18, of Spalding, Lincolnshire, failed to make the final cut.

Miss UK, Nicola Willoughby, failed to make the final three

This week she narrowly escaped being thrown out of the competition after topless photographs of her appeared in a newspaper.

For the first time the event boasted contestants representing Scotland and Wales.

But Miss Scotland Stephanie Norrie from Cumbernauld, and Miss Wales, Clare Daniel from Swansea, 20, along with Dublin-born Miss Ireland Emir-Maria Doyle, 19, did not make it to the 10-strong semi-final.

However, the advent of Northern Ireland's new power sharing government means from next year a Miss Northern Ireland could appear in the contest.